Sports Blog 24/01/2017: African Cup of Nations Preview – Morocco vs Ivory Coast/Togo vs DR Congo, Tuesday 24th January 2017

It’s all to play for in the African Cup of Nations Group C, with all four countries still in with a chance of reaching the quarter-finals.

So far the Ivory Coast, one of the early favourites to go the distance, have woefully underperformed; they face Morocco at 7pm on Eurosport 1. The Elephants slumped to a 0-0 draw against Togo in their opening game before twice having to come from behind against DR Congo to nab a point. If they fail to beat Morocco they would be out at the group stages for the first time since they didn’t qualify in 2004, and just 2 years after winning their 2nd title in Equatorial Guinea. The Ivory Coast have suffered from the same issue as most of the other countries involved – a lack of incisiveness up front. With one goal to his name Wilfried Bony will be looking to make a bit more of an impact on Tuesday, and sits at a Super Mega PGM of 25-30.



As for Morocco, things are a bit less cut and dry. While a win would guarantee them a place in the knockouts, a draw would be enough if Togo fail to beat DR Congo. Morocco haven’t gone beyond the group stages since finishing as runners-up in 2004, so Herve Renard will be hoping to inspire the Lions of the Atlas to victory on Tuesday. They stand a decent change; their 3 goals against Togo is the second best of any country so far (only behind Tunisia’s tally against Zimbabwe), and they only narrowly lost to group leaders DR Congo. It is going to be tight, however, with Spreadex offering an Ivory Coast/Morocco Goal Supremacy spread of 0.2-0.4 alongside a Total Goals spread of 2.2-12.4.

The other Group C game sees top take on bottom, as DR Congo face Togo at 7pm on Eurosport 2. After finishing in 3rd place in 2015, a huge achievement given that they didn’t qualify in between 2008 and 2012 and then exited in round 1 in 2013, DR Congo are close to securing their spot in the quarters. However, their situation is the most complicated; a win or a draw would confirm their place in the knockouts, while they could go through on a loss as long as a series of tiebreakers come out in their favour.



Like the Ivory Coast, Togo are in a do or die situation. With one point from their draw against the Elephants, the Sparrowhawks need a win to leave them level with DR Congo. Even then that may not be enough, with the Ivory Coast/Morocco result set to trigger either a two-way or three-way tiebraker situation. Luckily for those trying to work out what is going on the group leaders are favourites, with Spreadex offering a DR Congo/Togo Goal Supremacy spread of 0.35-0.55 alongside a Total Goals spread of 2.4-2.6.